


Paper Angel

by impudent_strumpet



Category: Original Work
Genre: Coming of Age, Dark, Death, Developing Relationship, Emotional Baggage, Emotions, F/M, Falling In Love, Fluff, Heart Disease, Het, Ill-fated Romance, Loss, Love, Memoir, Past Relationship(s), Relationship(s), Remembrance, Romance, Romantic Fluff, Star-crossed, Suffering, Teen Crush, Teen Romance, Teenagers, Tragedy, Unresolved Emotional Tension, dark themes, fluffy at first, sort of, terminal illness
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-26
Updated: 2016-11-26
Packaged: 2018-09-02 07:57:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8658814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/impudent_strumpet/pseuds/impudent_strumpet
Summary: YOU ARE BEING WARNED. This is a story where I take ALL the liberties of writing romance. And no, that's not what I mean, so get your mind out of the gutter =P I mean this story is going to have Nicholas Sparks levels of dreamlike romance. That is no exaggeration. So proceed with caution!





	

**Author's Note:**

> YOU ARE BEING WARNED. This is a story where I take ALL the liberties of writing romance. And no, that's not what I mean, so get your mind out of the gutter =P I mean this story is going to have Nicholas Sparks levels of dreamlike romance. That is no exaggeration. So proceed with caution!

It was yet another day.  
  
Joseph had woken up early again, nearly on the stroke of daybreak. The sun was just beginning to rise behind the trees, the sky offering nothing more than a pale glow. This early in the morning, it was as if the sun itself struggled to rise and face the day, and could offer very little light and warmth just yet.  
  
It was at this time that complete silence hung over seemingly the whole world, all of the earth's creatures humbled into quietude. These were the few hours of the morning when all who had gone out for the night had headed back home some time ago, and no one had to wake up for work or school yet, everyone sleeping as soundly as the dead.  
  
Joseph thought of Deanna.  
  
It had been a month, yet every day he rose in the morning with her name as his first thought, as if only yesterday that fateful, terrible event had happened.  
  
His chest tightened with anguish as a tear rolled down his cheek, everything around him feeling so empty and barren and deserted. He had never thought that loss, even of the person he had come to love more than anything else in the world, could be so sharply, thoroughly, horribly painful. It was like the pain and grief was decaying and melting away all that was left of him. How could anyone bear this? How would he?  
  
He could remember what she had looked like before, the picture of her still fresh in his mind. He remembered her hair, the strands in contrasting shades of platinum blonde and brown, her deep but bright brown eyes, her glowing face, her sweet smile.  
  
She had left such an imprint on his life, more than anyone ever had. He could not look at his life now without feeling like something was missing, like there was a gaping hole where she had been, that could never again be filled.  
  


~

  
Joseph had been at the hospital that day to visit a distant aunt of his. Looking back, he couldn't even remember exactly what it was that she had, although he knew it was some kind of cancer.  
  
He had never been in the hospital before. There was a time years ago when his sister had been sick, and he had visited her in the hospital, but Joseph had been only five years old then, so the memory was very faint. Joseph himself had never been hospitalized. He had just never been sick or hurt enough. When he and his mother had just arrived at the hospital to see his aunt, Joseph had thought then that he couldn't even imagine being so severely ill or injured as to need hospital care, especially for days, weeks, months, or even years on end. Though it was their life's work, he couldn't imagine how much grief it must have brought doctors and nurses to care for those people.  
  
Especially for the dying.  
  
Joseph knew that things weren't looking good for his aunt, and he wanted to be worried for her, but more than anything, he had just been overwhelmed and wanted to escape this place of illness, tiredness, whiteness, blood, bandages, and death. He couldn't stand the sight and smell much longer, or the sounds of concerned doctors, grieving families, and beeping heart monitors.  
  
He breathed deeply when he was finally let outside, feeling like he had just stepped back into life again. It had started to mist outside, just a little, the tiny droplets shimmering in the breaking sunlight.  
  
That was when Joseph noticed a girl perched on the stone ledge outside of the hospital. She hadn't been there when he had gone in. Joseph wondered where she had come from. Maybe she was visiting someone too.  
  
She was swinging her legs, just staring into the distance, seeming lost in the moment and the beauty of the scene before them. The patients in the hospital were often so pale and sickly, especially knowing their condition and the fate that awaited them. The doctors were harried and stressed over all that they had to do for their patients, and over what was to come. But this girl seemed so...lively compared to them. So content in the present.  
  
Joseph sat beside her. She turned to him and smiled brightly. "Hi."  
  
"H-Hi," Joseph replied, surprised and a bit nervous. "Did you need a break too?"  
  
The girl was quiet for a beat, and Joseph's chest tightened with nervousness, that maybe she didn't know what he was talking about. But surprisingly, she did.  
  
"Yeah," she said. "They didn't want to let me out at first, but now I finally could."  
  
"'They'? You mean your family?" Joseph asked.  
  
"Mhm." The girl's shoulders stiffened.  
  
Joseph could tell she didn't want to talk about it any further. It must have been hard for her, just as it was for him. He lightly touched her shoulder comfortingly, although the contact, as casual as it was, sent a jolt of nervousness through him. This was a girl he was with, and such a beautiful girl. When she gazed back towards the horizon, Joseph couldn't help but watch her.  
  
He then glanced up at the sky, a little higher than where her eyes were leveled, and noticed, suddenly, a half arc of colors in the sky.  
  
"It's a rainbow," he breathed.  
  
The girl raised her head to see it, the sunlight glinting in her eyes. "Whoa. It's so bright!"  
  
Joseph didn't know how that simple sentence had stolen his attention from the captivating sight in front of them, but it had. Her voice sounded so clear and cheerful and animated, like nothing he had ever heard before. As a breeze blew, her tanktop rippled over her torso and, well...Joseph couldn't help but stare at her chest. He quickly glanced back up at her face when she looked at him.  
  
He tried to keep focus. "...My name's Joseph. What's yours?"  
  
She smiled, that wide, bright smile again. "It's Deanna."


End file.
